Motion to Suppress – Search Warrant

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Criminal

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: MANION, WILLIAMS, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Motion to Suppress – Search Warrant

14-3262 United States of America v. Sidney Thompson

Even where probable cause lacking, good-faith exception allows admission of evidence obtained from search warrant

“All that said, we need not decide whether the state judge who issued the warrant had a basis for finding probable cause, since the search of Thompson’s residence survives a motion to suppress under the good-faith exception of Leon, 468 U.S. at 919–23. Officer Lane’s decision to obtain a warrant is prima facie evidence that he was acting in good faith. See Searcy, 664 F.3d at 1124. Thompson challenges that presumption by arguing that a police officer could not reasonably rely on a search warrant which, he insists, rests on less detail than the affidavit in Garcia, a case in which we saw reason to ”hesitate” before finally deciding that a “sensible judge” could have found that the challenged affidavit included enough information to establish probable cause. 528 F.3d at 486. It is true that the affidavit in this case lacks many of the same details missing from the affidavit in Garcia, but we reject Thompson’s suggestion that Officer Lane’s affidavit is materially inferior. As we’ve noted, Officer Lane corroborated some of the information supplied by the informant in this case, unlike the police officer in Garcia who corroborated none of the informant’s information. Id. at 483; see also United States v. Harju, 466 F.3d 602, 609 (7th Cir. 2006) (explaining that police officer’s effort to corroborate informant’s information was reason to apply good-faith exception despite affidavit’s lack of detail).”

Affirmed. Per Curiam.

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.